Josiah Tejada, a Campus Reform Oregon Campus Correspondent caught up with some students to hear their views on the event.

More specifically, he asked students if Thanksgiving is “racist” or if it celebrates genocide. The student responses were mixed, with at least some students siding with the Anti-Thanksgiving event.

Campus Reform posted, “There’s definitely a racist history to Thanksgiving and that should probably definitely be addressed more in education,” one student said. Another student told Campus Reform, “the whole concept with, like, taking land and assigning a value to it through cost is, like, it was different through European cultures.”

The students continued answering, with one student claiming that Thanksgiving is racist because “we’re celebrating taking away land from Natives.” Another student said, “It doesn’t have to be not celebrated, but if we can change it to instead of feeding ourselves maybe feeding the natives or donating to natives. Do we really need a giant feast?” And one more person stated, “Honestly, like, I’m not super educated on the topic but I just know that it has to do with the way the settlers treated the Natives who lived here.”

At least one person looked beyond the anti-Thanksgiving notion and simply stated, “I think the more important part is more the message of Thanksgiving, to be thankful for what you have, thankful for the people around you who are willing to help you.”